“Andy crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of shit-smelling foulness I can’t even imagine- or maybe I just don’t want to.”
I ended up catching the end of Shawshank Redemption the other night on TV. As I was sitting here, drinking coffee after being unceremoniously woken up at 5:30 AM (two hours earlier than normal), thinking about what I was going to write today, this quote popped into my head for no reason in particular.
I feel as though it’s really an ideal quote to wrap up this saga. I feel like I’ve crawled through a tunnel of shit to my new beginning.
That Sunday, we decided to just move on with their lives. As pissed off as we were, we were coming to a time where we needed a plan. At this point, if we had to change our move, we weren’t going to be able to reschedule it until 2 weeks later, and we still didn’t have a place to live. The idea of splitting up was dreadful to both of us, and something that we really wanted to avoid- but how could we even do that at this point?
Our realtor went and looked at another re-sale home that Monday. It was nice, but I still had a big chip on my shoulder about the whole process. I was frustrated and totally over it. My realtor kept pushing me to look at some new construction homes, but we had gone through several of them when we went on our house-hunting expedition in March. They were nice, but nothing special.
However. I, again, spent some time on Zillow and realized that the neighborhood of homes she was wanting me to check out was nice. REALLY nice. So I figured, okay, what the hell. I spent some time on the builders website trying to figure out what houses belonged to what lot and sent my realtor a couple of lot possibilities with inventory homes on them that were ready to go. One of them in particular showed a lot of promise, but it was far over budget. I wasn’t even sure it was really for sale. It was showing up as “for sale” in MLS but there was no mention of it in the builder’s website.
At this point, why the (*$$# not.
The realtor went to look at it and took lots of videos. It was a very nice house, but I really didn’t feel much of anything. Wood floors, nice appliances, big rooms, good layout, mango trees, nice lot. I was concerned that it had a “Sold” sign on the front of it, because looking at a house, making an offer, going through everything only to find out that it was already sold to someone else definitely sounds like something that would happen to us at this point. Evidently the house was already sold to someone, but they lost their financing, so it was back in the builder’s court. They wanted to unload it.
Dave really loved it, I thought it would be fine, and so we decided to see how much they were willing to play ball. We made an offer on Tuesday of $30,000 under asking.
And they agreed.
I couldn’t believe it. By Wednesday, we were under contract and from then on, everything was rolling faster than a rabbit on speed. Friday, Dave drove down to see the house, dropped off the first car, and flew back Saturday afternoon. Monday, he graduated from residency. We got home right as FedEx delivered the closing papers; we went to the bank and had them signed, notorized, and witnessed by a random stranger in line, and then dropped them back off to FedEx to be overnighted. Tuesday, we moved out of our house and drove to Cincinnati. Wednesday, Dave drove down to Florida with our cat and dog. I am currently still in Cincinnati with his parents until Sunday. The furniture should be delivered Monday or Tuesday.
Side note: Leaving our old house was SO MUCH HARDER than I expected it to be. Seeing the movers carry out boxes was like watching them carry out our whole lives, all our memories. Walking through the empty rooms was so emotional; I could see so many big milestones hit in that house– my husband proposing, telling him we were having a baby, bringing J home, watching him change and grow throughout his first year. It even culminated in watching him really learn to walk the night before we left. It was such a great house, filled with so much love and fantastic memories with the people that we care about. It’s more than just saying goodbye to walls and windows- its like saying goodbye to another member of your family. I cried when we left, and I cried myself to sleep that night. I told my husband that I felt like my heart was broken.
Goodbye, Old Friend…
Dave is really excited for me to see the new house. He is living there with the dog and the cat, in a house with no furniture and no fridge, and sleeping on an inflatable mattress. Last night he went to the grocery store and got limes, beer, and stuff to make sandwiches. He got home and realized there were no knives. He may honestly be excited for me to see the house purely because that means that I will actually be there to remember things like buying plastic silverware.
I’m glad that he says I’m going to like it, but I still don’t feel much other than just wanting closure to this whole thing. I want to get there, get my furniture, get moved in, and really start on this new adventure I’m on. I’m taking my nonchalance as a good sign though. I was super excited and felt great about the first two houses, so maybe its actually a good omen that I don’t about this one!
“Andy Dufresne, who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side. Andy Dufresne, headed for the Pacific.”
Well, Gulf of Mexico anyway…
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